Life in the Rear-view Mirror

Our New-found Love

As a nation becomes more technologically advanced, it changes from being a supplier of manufactured goods to a provider of services. During my middle age, manufacturing, the mainstay of good-paying union jobs, became less important and eventually gave way to an army of people selling communication devices, largely manufactured in Asia. The communication revolution that started a few decades ago, spurred the fastest growth in the largely non-unionized, low-wages service sector.

Nowadays, people feel a strong need to be in touch, almost continuously. It’s common, on our morning walks, to see people talking to themselves, or at least that was the way it seemed when hands-free devices were first introduced. Now we know better. This fascination with wireless communication is astounding. When I use public transportation, the majority of commuters are focused on their little gadgets, furiously moving their thumbs. On crowded downtown streets, communication junkies are focused on their devices, and not on where they’re going. Coffee shops have become more a place to communicate wirelessly, than a place for face-to-face communication, while enjoying a good cup of coffee. So, they have also become service providers.

The clientele is happy paying more for a coffee and doughnut, as long as they can sit there with their iPads, iPhones, and other devices surfing the net, shopping, paying bills, and communicating with friends and family all over the world. The smart phones have made it easy to snap pictures and instantly send them to people anywhere. That’s the empowerment of the communication revolution. It hit society unexpectedly, just like a storm.

What did people do when these gadgets weren’t around? After all, they are relatively new; but the way people have taken to them, especially the young, one gets the impression that they have been around forever. Maybe that’s the reason coffee is not as tasty these days. People are so focused on communicating that they don’t even pay attention to what they eat and drink. Have we become addicted to this new technology?

The telephone has been in existence for more than a century, so phone communication is not new. What has changed to make it so important now? Two things have taken place: telephones are no longer attached to a cord; and the phone companies have brainwashed people, particularly the young, that life would not be worth living without a tiny gadget that allows one to talk, send text messages and electronic mail, and find out where the closest Tim Hortons is located. It’s one of the biggest lifestyle changes I have witnessed; I am still struggling to understand it.

The wireless communication devices are truly remarkable, but they have their drawbacks. It’s annoying when we go out with friends and they continually check their smart phones, receive calls, or initiate them, not because there is an emergency, but because it has become habitual. The worst place for that is in restaurants, where one goes to enjoy a good meal with good company. At least that’s the way it used to be. Today, it’s almost impossible to go through a meal without at least one interruption. If your friends are kind and considerate, they will switch off their mobile devices during the meal. But one cannot count on the people at nearby tables to be as considerate. Nowadays, every theatre and symphonic performance starts with a reminder for patrons to switch off all communications devices. However, without fail, one will ring during the performance, to everyone’s annoyance.

I am one of the few who have no cell or smart phone because I value my privacy. But there was a time when a lot more people treasured their privacy. Years ago, when people went to the cottage for their summer vacation, there were no phones to stay connected. The idea of going to the cottage was to get away from it all, to relax and forget the work and home problems. How can people forget their problems now, when they are connected 24/7?

Communication has become one of the biggest sectors of the service industry. In the 1980s, no one could have imagined that personal computers would evolve into powerful communication devices. When I bought my first computer it didn’t come with anything. It was a more sophisticated calculator that could be programmed to solve mathematical problems. Interestingly, one of the first things I did with it was to program a mini-planetary system to show my young daughters how the earth revolved around the sun, and the moon around the earth. The computer’s memory was 64 Kilobytes, and when I turned it off it didn’t retain anything. Everything had to be stored on a floppy disc.

The second generation of computers were more powerful, but for many they were not much more than a word processor; and, if one had a dot-matrix printer, together they could replace the typewriter. What is it? Some readers might ask. Up to about two decades ago, they were found in every office, now they are almost museum pieces, but I digress. If one also had a telephone modem, one could exchange files with friends and colleagues, but one had to call ahead of time for them to be ready to receive the call. I remember many times telling the family not to answer the phone because it was for the computer. But, for the computer to receive the call, the modem, a modified telephone, had to be manually activated.

Today, home computers have built-in wireless modems and are used mostly to communicate. Now, I can exchange information with other computers around the world, not even knowing where they are located, and without first checking their availability. I can search and retrieve information from all corners of the earth; and I can correspond with airlines to book flights, with hotels to book rooms, with theatres to book seats, and with sites where one can buy or sell virtually anything. They have come a long way in thirty years!

They have also played a major role in bringing societal change, by infiltrating all aspects of work and home life. In my case, the personal computer, and the world-wide-web that empowered it, allowed me to leave a secure, well-paying job with good benefits, to set up my own home-based consulting business. In 1989, the year I made the change, I became an entrepreneur, working harder than ever and enjoying it immensely. My stress level immediately dropped a few octaves and my health improved significantly. Working from home allowed me to avoid stressful, rush-hour traffic and devote the avoided travel time to physical fitness.

In the nineties, many others discovered the joy of the home office. Corporations changed age-old practices of doing everything in-house and started contracting non-core services to small businesses, many of which operated from home.

Companies like Staples and Office Depot thrived selling supplies to a new army of self-employed workers. This was a win-win situation for all concerned, including Mother Earth, as working from home reduced the number of cars on the road, gasoline consumption, and noxious emissions.

Have we simply traded one evil for another? Instead of being chained to the proverbial desk, are we now chained to the computer? Clearly, technology has changed our lives and will continue to do so. There’s no stopping it. At least for me, the advantage of being chained to my notepad is that I can carry it with me on my travels, and can write while traveling. However, there are people that are so fascinated by the computer, they hardly leave home. Their social life is what they experience via the Internet.